A user desiring to access information available over a network such as the Internet may typically begin the process by entering one or more search terms, such as keywords, in a search engine available at a search engine website. The search engine uses the keywords to generate a listing of search results, usually in the form of one or more search results web pages, where each search result may be associated with a web site or web page content relevant to or otherwise associated with the keywords. For example, if a visitor to a search engine website enters the term “flowers,” web pages that may be relevant to flowers may be listed on the search results page.
The search results listing is often quite large and may include multiple pages of search results where each page includes some portion of the search results. For example, a first web page may be used to display the first ten search results, a second web page may be used to display the second ten search results, etc. Because of the large number of search results, and the correspondingly large number of pages displaying those search results, a user may have difficulty finding websites of interest to the user, particularly if the relevant website is displayed on a fourth, fifth, or even later page of search results.
In order to assist users in reviewing the search results listing, search engines often use an automated ranking algorithm to rank the search results based on relevancy. The relevance of each search result is generally determined based on a number of factors, including the content or subject matter of the web page, the number of other web pages having links to that web page, etc. However, determining the relevancy of a particular web page to a keyword search is an inherently difficult task, and in some situations, the automated ranking algorithm may not be effective in directing the user to the web pages containing the desired information.
For example, if a user enters a search term that is widely used in a variety of unrelated general contexts, (e.g., the term “eagle” may generally refer to the bird, as well as to one or more otherwise unrelated products, persons, sports teams or other organizations adopting the name “Eagle”), several unrelated yet highly or even equally relevant web pages may be identified by the search engine. Moreover, even if the user enters a search term that is typically used in a single general context (e.g., San Francisco typically refers to the city in general), several unrelated yet highly or even equally relevant web pages may be identified by the search engine within that context (e.g., web pages related to one more locations or entities within San Francisco). In these situations, the user may be faced with having to navigate through a large number of unrelated web page listings to find those search results that are the most relevant. It would be beneficial to provide a method and system for providing search results that enables a user to more efficiently navigate through a search results listing, eliminate less relevant search results, and perform a more focused search.